Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-08-04

w ucn we COUSlueE the PERSISTENCE OF
impressions once made upon the tissues
during extra-uterine life, as shown for
instance, in the perpetuation of scars,
where the abnormal cell-formatiOn once
produced, repeats itself in every fresh
layer of cell growth, we need not be
surprised at temperance of the
influences eXerted upon future similar
events.
Again the Mosaic law, which in so
many points harmonic with the most
| recent developments of natural science,
dWells most wisely on the question of
consanguinity Of marriage. For general
debility, defects in vital organs, and in
| the nervous centers, and especially
| perpetuatlOn of those of confirmation
that pre-exist in the parents, are the
almost invariable result of intermarriage
among relations. The general law
appears to be that the more fresh blood
Is introduced into a family or race, the
more vigorous the defendants are likely
to be. The Importance of securing each
for the other sound, healthful COM
panion would be great advantage to
the world, If 1t were more generally
recognized, and would save a vast
amount of sorrow and distress; but such
things are unfortunately seldom thought
of; it would therefore be no unwise
thing to obtain an inactment fOrbidding
the marriage of cousins of first and
second degree.
DR.. Hammond considers the nervous
temperament and diseases more trans
mlSSable than other diseases "Ameri-
cans can be distinguished among all
nations for their nervous type; it is
shown cOnSpicuously in their restless
manners; where the brain and nerves
predominant, neuralgia in all it's forms,
and other nervous troubles may be
unprecedented. These diseases are apt
to limit themselves to the nervous
system, although they transmit them
selves in different forms, as Epilepsy or
Chorea IN the parent, may appear as in
sanity or lmbecility in the child"
Persons are daily coming into life en-
dOWed with undue nervous sensibility
and destined to pass their days from be-
ginning to end, below the plane of an
average nerve nutrition; they seldom
present us with localized, destructive
disease, but from first to last lack an av-
erage volume of nerve power and endu-
rance, whether mental or physical. The
energy of nutrition is low and recupera-
tive power is feeble: such persons are
frail and puny; they are easily exhaust
ed, usually thin and pale. They are
habltually Overtaxed, and in most cases
they are to degree practically ineffi
cient in the affairs of life They are
never well long at a time, seldom seri-
Ously i'll, but are prone to the myriad Of
slighter forms Of neuroses of sensibility,
general, special or emotional. This is
given as type of hereditary neurasthe-
MIA. 1t is a picture which will be
recognized by every reader as typical
of a mild form of nervous inheritance.
First in Importance in the list of
hereditary diseases, and the one least
under control Of remedial measures,
mentioned by DR.. Whitehead, is
Phthisis or pulmonary tuberculosis It
prevails in all parts of the globe and in
all climates. 1t is said to carry off one
fourth of the inhabitants of Europe, and
that estimate would probably not be too
guilty and has prevailed with almost
equal fatality in all ages of the world
DR.. Theodore Williams finds that the
number of cases of consumption having
only brothers and sisters affected with
that disease constitutes proportion of
forty per. cent.-a percentage which,
as will appear from the following table,
is larger than that of every other class
of relatives:
Of total Of 404,
10 had grandparents affected
43 had fathers affected
81 had mothers affected
10 had both parents affected.
IS had uncles and aunts affected.
y had fathers or mothers family
affected.
224 had brothers and sisters affected
10 had cousins affected
L.
that the family predisposition shows
itself more in the females of a family
than in males, the difference amounting
to fourteen per cent, while they con-
firm the prevailing opinion which is
commonly acted upon, in determining
that the presence of Phthisis in mothers
has greater influence upon the recur-
renee of the disease in their children
than its presence in the fathers to the
extent of nearly five per cent.
Though the hereditary diathesis in
Phthisis PulmOnalis is more marked and
its fatal results more certain than in
most of the transmitted predispositions
to disease, there are other inherited
tendencies equally to be dreaded The
cancerOus diathesis much more and the
syphilitic diathesis no less, and the
constitutional tendency to insanity and
alcoholism quite as much. With refer
ence to cancer, Velpeau was of opinion
that one in three cases of cancer show
ed hereditary faint Sibley concluded
from the statistics from the MiddleseX
Hospital that the proportion was nearly
one in twelve. Sir James Paget's inves-
LEGATIONS yield one in four. Practically
we cannot ignore the undoubted
hereditability of Cancer.
Rheumatism is another form of
disease the tendency to which is here
ditary in an undeniable manner.
Indeed there is no reason why internal
peculiarities should not be transmitted
as we'll as external = why
peculiar condition of the brain,
stomach, the liver should not be handed
down from father to son as well as
special cast of features, peculiar shape
of limbs or color Of hair. 1t COMFORTS
with all reason that pecularities of the
motor system should be inherited as
we'll as those of the nervous, digestive,
osseous of other systems of the body;
that some peculiar condition of the
motor system is handed down in rheu-
matism we know; that this condition
declares itself by special susceptibility
of the tissues of the motor apparatus
to the action of the rheumatic poison